YANGON -- A huge flower festival featuring flower of both local and foreign species is underway in Pyin Oo Lwin, a northern city of Myanmar, official reports reaching here said Friday.

The five-day festival, which is the third of its kind, was inaugurated at the National Kandawgyi Garden (NKG) Thursday, according to the Forestry Ministry which sponsored the festival.

Over seven million flowers of 16 local spices and more than 70 foreign species are on display, it said.

The Kandawgyi garden is also grown with 600 species of local and foreign trees, 300 species of Myanmar orchid, 75 species of garden proton and 75 species of bamboo, it added.

The first such flower festival was held at the NKG in December 2006 to mark its diamond jubilee while the second was in December last Year.

The NKG was established in 1915 as a botanical garden and was later expanded in different eras reaching 177 hectares in 2000 which comprises lake, natural forest, observation tower and rose, orchid and bamboo gardens.

Statistics show that about 400,000 people have visited the NKG annually since it was reopened in 2001.

Pyin Oo Lwin, lying 69 kilometers east of the second largest city of Mandalay and at over 1,000 meters above sea-level, enjoys cool and pleasant weather all year round. The flower city is well known for its pine trees, eucalyptus and silver-oak abounding in town.